Series 7
Series 7 'of Strictly Come Dancing began airing on BBC One on September 18, 2009. The series was presented by Bruce Forsyth and Tess Daly, whilst Claudia Winkleman returned to present spin-off sow called Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two on BBC Two. The judging panel consisted of Craig Revel Horwood, Alesha Dixon, Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli. Darcey Bussell was a guest judge from the quarter final onwards. Due to illness, Bruce did not feature in the show on November 14 and as a result, Tess took over as main presenter and Ronnie Corbett was a surprise guest. Camilla Dallerup, Karen Hardy and Hayley Holt were replaced as professional female dancers by Aliona Vilani, Katya Virshilas and Natalie Lowe. The show on November 7 was filmed from the Blackpool Tower Ballroom for the first time since the Grand Final of Series 2. Chris Hollins and his partner, Ola Jordan were crowned series champions. Format Each week since, September 18, 2009 to December 19, 2009. The couples dance a new routine (either a ballroom or a Latin dance) hoping to impress the judges. Each judge reviews the performance and then give a mark out of 10, giving the maximum score to 40. Once everyone has performed, they are ranked on the judges' leaderboard. Couples In the seventh series, there were sixteen celebrity contestants: Scoring Chart *Gold: Winners *Silver: 2nd Place *Bronze: 3rd Place *Pink: Couple eliminated that week *Blue: Couple withdrew from the competition that week 'Average Chart This table only counts for dances scored on a traditional 40-point scale. Highest and Lowest Scoring Performances The best and worst performances in each dance according to the judges' scores are as follows: Couples' Highest and Lowest Scoring Dances Weekly Scores and Songs Unless indicated otherwise, individual judges scores are given (in parenthesis) in this order from left to right: Craig Revel Horwood, Len Goodman, Alesha Dixon and Bruno Tonioli. 'Week 1' *Musical Guest: Katherine Jenkins - "I Believe" 'Night 1 - Ballroom' 'Night 2 - Latin' 'Week 2' *Musical Guest: Jamie Cullum - "I'm All Over It" 'Night 1 - Ballroom' 'Night 2 - Latin' 'Week 3' *Musical Guest: Andy Williams - "Moon River" 'Week 4' *Musical Guest: Dionne Bromfield - "Mama Said" (with Amy Winehouse providing backing vocals) 'Week 5' *Musical Guest: Spandau Ballet - "Gold" 'Week 6' *Musical Guest: Harry Connick, Jr. - "The Way You Look Tonight" 'Week 7' *Musical Guest: Bee Gees - "You Should Be Dancing" 'Week 8: Blackpool Week' *Musical Guest: Rod Stewart - "It's the Same Old Song" 'Week 9' *Musical Guest: Cast of Jersey Boys - "Beggin'" *Jade picked up an injury during dress rehearsal and was unable to perform on the live show. However, she performed it in the final when she recovered from injury. *Laila only performed half of her Rumba due to an injury backstage. The judges scored the dance just on what they saw. *Bruce Forsyth did not attend the live show due to influenza. Ronnie Corbett stepped in as guest host. 'Week 10' *Musical Guest: Dame Shirley Bassey - "This Time" *Jade and her partner Ian had to withdraw from the competition due to a number of weeks not being able to perform due to an ankle injury. 'Week 11' *Musical Guest: James Morrison and Nelly Furtado - "Broken Strings" 'Week 12' Individual judges scores are given (in parenthesis) in this order from left to right: Craig Revel Horwood, Darcey Bussell, Len Goodman, Alesha Dixon and Bruno Tonioli. *Musical Guest: Bette Midler - "The Rose" 'Week 13' *Musical Guest: Lily Allen - "Not Fair" 'Week 14: Final' *Musical Guest: Alesha Dixon and Bruce Forsyth - "Something's Gotta Give" 'Show 1' 'Show 2' Dance Chart *Green: Highest Scoring Dance *Pink: Lowest Scoring Dance TV Ratings Weekly ratings for each show on BBC One. All numbers are in millions and provided by BARB. In September 2009, Strictly Come Dancing earned a place in Guinness World Records as "most successful reality television format", with licensing rights sold to broadcasters in 38 countries. Nonetheless, the sixth series' audiences had suffered as a result of direct clashes with ITV rival The X Factor. The BBC's decision in August 2009 to screen the seventh series on Saturday nights only was partly an attempt to reduce conflict with the rival talent show, as ITV had hinted that The X Factor's results show would be broadcast on Sunday evening. Sources at the BBC described the move as "better for the viewers... people at home lose out if things are competing against one another... We wanted to make Strictly Come Dancing an unmissable TV event". However, the BBC still came under intense criticism when the extended Saturday show, initially running fro 7-9pm, clashed almost entirely with The X Factor's main show. ITV sources accused the BBC of "effectively splitting the audience". Writing in The Guardian George Dixon, head of scheduling for BBC One, argued that "the ability of viewers to see programmes again, whether via personal video recorders like Sky+, online catch-up services including iPlayer or on channels such as E4 or ITV2, makes the notion of "forcing" viewers to watch... outdated", adding that "There are around seven repeats of The X Factor on ITV1 and ITV2 each week". The scheduling conflict ended with The X Factor securing a higher audience throughout the series. On October 22, 2009, the BBC rescheduled the Saturday show, now down to eight contestants, so that the overlap between the two programs was only 45 minutes. The BBC denied that the move was in direct response to the success of its ITV rival, saying instead that the move was to accommodate a new series with impressionist Jon Culshaw. Strictly Come Dancing's runtime, previously fixed at two hours, was also expected to decrease as contestants were progressively eliminated, leading to a further reduction in overlap. Category:Series 7 Category:Series